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Tuesday, 25 April 2017

The Nag's Head - Gluud Und Scruud / Live From Concrete Island

Catching up with a release from 2016, it's good to hear that Stephen Maskell's keeping the spirit of eclecticism alive on Gluud Und Scruud for Kit Records - a road rage tape and other samples litter the album, along with all manner of beats and approaches to sound from noise to ambient, no easy feat to manage without sounding 'all over the place' - but then - perhaps there's nothing wrong with that either. As with visual artists, musical ones tend to find a style and stick with it either through lack of exploratory thinking or having hit on a popular formula. Maskell as The Nag's Head is obviously interested in many different types of sound, so we get pounding beat minimalism on Tar and heavy distortion on Road. At times rave seems to leak through, but getting hold of every influence is devilishly hard on an album packed with them.Gluud Und Scruud by The Nag's Head

His Live From Concrete Island, Kit's first release, has just been reissued. It's as wide-ranging and successful as Gluud Und Scruud. It also features, on You Can't Make an Omelette Without Breaking a Few Eggs, the melody of John Coltrane's A Love Supreme, coincidentally or not I have no idea. Lastly, if you're British, you've got to enjoy and appreciate anyone who name's themselves after a pub.